It is only early winter and a little cold in the south of the Yangtze River, but it is already snowing heavily in Beijing.

The long Little Ice Age has not yet officially begun, but it has already shown its power.

Goose feather-like snowflakes fell down, covering the capital city with a thick white blanket.

There was a strong wind and snow, and there were few vehicles and horses. The official road was also covered with heavy snow, and the road was almost invisible.

Suddenly, a rapid sound of copper bells rang out, and three horses galloped along the official road towards the east gate.

The bells were made by the bronze bells hanging from the waists of the three knights. The bells and the red flags on their backs with the words "Pegasus Express", "Officials and Civilians Keep Away", and "Those Who Intercept Will Die" explained their identities - express couriers delivering urgent letters for the court.

The officers and soldiers guarding the East Gate quickly made way and released the express delivery on horseback to the capital.

The people in the capital were also very well-behaved. When they heard the bell, they all gave way. The three horses galloped all the way and broke into the Tongzhengsi Yamen, where they then pulled the reins.

The officials from the yamen quickly caught the three frozen knights. Without caring whether they were dead or alive, they first untied the copper letter tubes on the three people's backs and presented them to the minister immediately.

Among these three mailboxes, only one contains a secret message, but even the soldier delivering the message doesn't know which one is the real one.

Tongzhengshi Xue Songyi checked the three mailboxes and found that the sealing wax was intact. He then opened them one by one and found the urgent letter from Yingtian Governor's Office that had traveled eight hundred miles in a row in the third mailbox.

After cutting open the envelope with three chicken feathers stuck to it, Xue Songyi's expression changed immediately. He said in a deep voice, "Prepare the horses. I want to enter the palace!"

~~

After a while, the letter written by Niu Chenshi reporting the Jiangnan Incident, as well as Zheng Yuanshao's confession, were placed in front of the three grand secretaries.

After a long time, you could hear a pin drop in Wenyuan Pavilion.

The three university scholars were all stunned, and Bu Gu's body was moving without wind, telling of his shock and anger.

Xu Fan, ah Xu Fan, what are you doing? Are you planning to kill your father? !

The First Minister Li Chunfang and the Second Minister Chen Yiqin were also in a very bad mood.

Although they were eager for Lord Xu to retire at the beginning, once Xu Jie really retired, the two of them immediately raised Lord Xu's banner and regarded themselves as the leaders of the Xu Party.

Don't mention it, this trick really works. Under the real threat that Gao Gong might come back at any time, those Xu party members didn't bother to investigate the role these two played in the process of Xu Ge Lao's resignation. They all united under their banner.

During the past six months, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin have worked together to prevent Gao Gong's name from appearing in the list of candidates recommended by the court for Grand Secretary three times.

Finally, Emperor Longqing temporarily gave up the urgent idea of ​​reinstating Gao Gong.

The two of them haven't even had time to enjoy their peaceful days yet, and something like this happens again!

How could they continue to fight for the Xu Party? It was embarrassing, extremely embarrassing.

~~

After a long while, Li Chunfang said helplessly: "Tell me, what should we do?"

"What else can we do?" Chen Yiqin snorted and said, "Send an imperial envoy to investigate. Let's calm down the discussion first."

"Yes." Li Chunfang nodded gloomily, and said in a very bad mood: "I guess the three judicial officials in Nanjing have already taken action. Let's appoint Zhu Butang and the other two as imperial envoys to investigate nearby."

"Don't worry about that." Chen Yiqin asked in a muffled voice: "What should we do if the barrier is behind?"

"Of course, let the new governor of Yingtian investigate. We have Zheng Yuanshao's confession, so we just need to follow the clues." As the prime minister, Li Chunfang's words must always be politically correct.

"Then who will be the governor?" Chen Yiqin asked.

"Let's see what the Ministry of Personnel gives us first." Li Chunfang said gloomily, "We'll discuss it then."

"This..." Chen Yiqin gasped a few times with some dissatisfaction, but held back and said nothing.

Zhang Juzheng has remained silent, which is also a reflection of his state in the past six months. Now that there are three people in the cabinet, the first and second assistants are united, and he, the only cabinet member, has a hard time.

It would be fine if Li Chunfang could do his job well, but he is a complete copy of Xu Ge Lao. Not only does he believe in tranquility and inaction, he is even more keen on lecturing than Xu Ge Lao.

Bu Gu was very angry, but the two of them pushed the responsibility of driving Yuan Fu away onto him, both openly and covertly. This made it increasingly difficult for Zhang Juzheng to move forward in Xu's party, and he had to give up the idea of ​​immediately reinstating Gao Gong, and wait for the right opportunity to hide his strength and bide his time.

So after a brief moment of shock and anger, he realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for had come.

Sure enough, the two superiors looked at him at the same time. "Taiyue, this is a serious matter. Please go and report to the emperor."

"Yes, sir." Zhang Juzheng nodded in response and took the memorial with both hands, but he did not see Li Chunfang handing him Zheng Yuanshao's confession.

Zhang Juzheng cast an inquiring look.

Li Chunfang held the confession and smiled awkwardly, "This is just Zheng's one-sided statement. If we rashly hand it over to the emperor, he will inevitably be furious. If the final result of the investigation is inconsistent with this confession, wouldn't we be causing His Majesty to lose sight of right and wrong and wrongly accuse a good person?"

"Then wait and present it together when a conclusion is reached." Chen Yiqin also nodded. This was not wrong. Many times, the emperor only needed to know the result, not the process.

"Yes." What else could Zhang Juzheng say? He nodded, put away the confession, and turned to leave.

Li Chunfang watched him put on a bright red cloak, sit on the oilcloth-topped sedan chair, and stagger across the stone bridge. Then she withdrew her gaze and said faintly, "I was unhappy before, but now I am happy."

"Then why did you let him go?" Chen Yiqin snorted.

"Even if I don't let him go, he will go on his own." Li Chunfang said lightly, and sighed deeply: "Nanchong Gong, Lord Xu's banner can no longer be raised."

"That's what I wanted to say just now." Chen Yiqin picked up the confession and said angrily, "Lord Xu is also old and confused. How could he let his son do such a thing? I, Chen, am ashamed to be associated with him!"

The words sound nice, but the main point is that Xu Jie's reputation is about to become a negative asset. Using Xu Jie's name will only drag them down.

"It doesn't matter if we can't fight anymore. We will have to raise our own banner sooner or later anyway." Li Chunfang sighed, "But His Majesty and Zhang Taiyue might take the opportunity to reinstate Gao Xinzheng. Can we still withstand this?"

"We have to hold on even if we can't!" Chen Yiqin blew his beard and glared, "Once he comes back, we'll be done for."

"Then why don't you come up with a rule?" Li Chunfang said helplessly, "Can you glare at Gao Xinzheng back?"

"How can I think of it at this moment?" Chen Yiqin said dejectedly.

The two gentlemen were looking at each other with sorrow when suddenly they saw the young cabinet minister Li Maocai come in from outside.

"Father, my master sent a few boxes of tea, please have a taste." Li Maocai bowed to Chen Yiqin, then placed a few beautiful tea boxes on the table.

Li Chunfang casually took the box his son handed to him. He opened the lid to smell the tea to wake himself up, but saw a few words on the inside of the lid.

He was stunned for a moment, then he showed a look of sudden realization, then laughed and said, "Okay, thank you, Master."

ps. Third update. I went for physical therapy today. It hurt so much that I almost died. The doctor told me not to stay up late. I went to bed early and will write more tomorrow.